Ok, so I've been painting a lot of portraits lately, and I'm not used to painting portraits. As far as portrait paintings go I've painted maybe 3 faces in my life (with oils). Painting faces freaks me out a bit because it's so…I dunno…specific. But whatever, I'm just going with it. I had this idea to paint celestial mermaids…these goddess creatures who are gorgeous but could also fuck you up. Luna (girl with the blue hair) is a night goddess. I kind of love her. More ladies to come! Think dark hair, dark flowers, ravens, galaxies, etc. Who knows, I might throw in something completely random. And maybe they're not even mermaids, maybe they're sirens. I can't decide. Or both? I'm just going with it. 

^^ Kitty bath. 

^^ From my sketchbook… I'm sketching more! (yay). This is Ghost Cat Explores a Crystal Cave. Maybe he'll go on other adventures too.

^^ New little guy, Wolf Mountain.

^^ I've got Scarab and Wolf Mountain prints up in the shoppity shop. These fellas come in 5x5 or 8x8 inches. <3

Off to go do more painting! 

One of my most recent watercolors, Parthenope.  

 ^^ freckle details. 

I haven't painted portraits in years, and Parthenope was my mermaid muse in helping me dive back into it (get it, dive? harhar…okay I'll stop).  I don't know about other artists, but painting faces make me nervous…there's so much stress with using the right lighting, skin tones, and making sure facial features look accurate and natural.  Obviously there are many many different ways to portray the human form from completely realistic to completely abstract, but I'm somewhere in the middle and the middle is where things get fuzzy.

Nonetheless, I loved painting my siren, and there's more to come…female and male.  Mermaid and non-mermaid.  So many ideas brewin. 

Parthenope is also available in the shop here.